A South Carolina daughter is fighting to reclaim her late father’s house after discovering that his caregiver obtained the deed weeks before his death. The transfer, reportedly made for just $5, was completed without the daughter’s knowledge.
Nora Rowland said nurse Sarah Smalls began caring for her 75 year old father, Robert, through Griswold Home Care in March 2024. Soon afterward, communication with her father began fading in a way that immediately raised concerns.
“My dad was always a daddy’s girl type thing, so it was always him and me throughout my whole life,” Rowland said. “We FaceTimed every week.”
After Robert failed to contact her on Father’s Day, Rowland drove from Maryland to Conway to check on him.
She arrived to find a changed front door and a Ring doorbell camera installed outside the home.
Rowland pressed the doorbell, and Smalls answered through the camera with devastating news.
“She tells me, ‘This isn’t the way that I wanted to tell you, but your dad died, and there’s a bunch of other stuff I have to tell you too. Just wait there,’” Rowland said.
Her father had reportedly been dead for three days.
Once inside, Rowland said the home no longer looked like the place she remembered.
“I went in, and everything was different,” Rowland said.
“She had put up random photographs of people I’d never seen before. The walls were painted.”
When Smalls returned, Rowland expected an explanation about her father and the apparent transformation of his home. Instead, Smalls accused Rowland of breaking in and called Conway police.
Smalls then presented officers with a deed showing the house in her name.
“I’m walking out of the house expecting them to come and help, and they put my partner and me in handcuffs immediately,” Rowland said.
“I just kept saying, ‘I don’t know what’s going on; this is my dad’s house. My dad is dead.’”
Police body camera footage revealed that a neighbor had already raised concerns about activity at the property.
His account suggested the troubling changes had been unfolding for weeks.
“She [Smalls] was allegedly coming here during the day and taking care of him, and one day she started moving furniture out, and he disappeared,” the neighbor shared.
“She was only in here a very short time, and Bob, he was not within his wits at all. You could’ve talked him into just about anything. I even called senior services and asked them to look into it.”
Documents cited by Rowland show significant changes to Robert’s legal and financial affairs before his death.
Smalls was named as his power of attorney in April, and an April 17 quitclaim deed transferred the Conway residence to her for $5.
Bank records also reportedly showed transfers from Robert’s account to Smalls, including transactions made after he died.
Smalls directed WMBF News to her attorney and later called police when a news crew visited the property.
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Horry County Registrar of Deeds Marion Foxworth III said his office determines whether documents satisfy basic legal requirements, not whether the transaction is fair.
“If it contains all the correct information to meet the legal standard, then we record it,” Foxworth said.
“We don’t check whether what’s in that deed is fair or right.”
Foxworth said deed theft is uncommon in the county and has declined as real estate professionals improved identity verification training.
Still, the case illustrates how a properly formatted document can enter public records even when a family fiercely disputes the circumstances behind it.
The criminal charges against Rowland have since been dismissed, according to her account.
She is now challenging the deed and arguing that her father, who had Parkinson’s disease and a brain injury, may not have understood the document he signed.
“It’s so easy for them to get taken advantage of,” Rowland said.
“He was a nice man; he would never think that someone could do this to him. I really can’t emphasize enough how many other people could easily get taken advantage of like this.”
Griswold Home Care previously told WMBF News it had no knowledge of the situation.
Rowland later supplied subpoenaed documents that she says indicate otherwise, while additional calls to the company were not returned.
